I am deeply saddened over the reported death of two Filipino citizens in a bombing incident that occurred on Sunday, August 4th, inside a public bus travelling between Haifa and Safed in northern Israel. My heart goes out to the families of the two victims.  I have thus instructed the relevant DFA offices as well as the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv to extend every possible assistance – particularly in facilitating the repatriation of the remains of the deceased.

The Embassy has reported the names of the two casualties. The mother of one of them has already been informed; but, pending confirmation of notification of the other’s next-of-kin, and Philippine Ambassador Marciano Paynor’s projected meeting with Israeli authorities later today, 5 August 2002, the release of other personal information may have to wait until later in the day.

The Embassy has been instructed to update their current safety guidelines – which they formulated much earlier in consultation with Filipino community members themselves.  If necessary, they are to update those guidelines in order to ensure that our people are kept away from danger.

The President has been informed of this incident and the Department is keeping her apprised of developments.

 5 August 2002

 N.B.

Soon after this statement was released, the Secretary revealed that the names are Rebecca Roga, 39 years old, originally from Oriental Mindoro and Adelina Cunanan, 34 years old, from Pampanga.